


the hum in the air (and the gentle love)

by Ro29



Series: spring dawn [3]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: CC-2224 | Cody Needs a Hug, Cody is Soft, Fluff, I still cant believe I wrote poetry for this, M/M, Obi-Wan Kenobi Needs a Hug, Obi-Wan sleep talks, Pre-Relationship, and says poetry in his sleep, this is very soft and it made me soft writing it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-21
Updated: 2020-10-21
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:21:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27137219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ro29/pseuds/Ro29
Summary: The lights are on in the General's office.
Relationships: CC-2224 | Cody/Obi-Wan Kenobi
Series: spring dawn [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1924663
Comments: 32
Kudos: 196





	the hum in the air (and the gentle love)

The lights are on in the General’s office.

It’s late, too late for them to be on, really. The General should be asleep by now, resting at the very least. He’d told Terror he would be turning in hours ago, when things had finally started calming down enough that he was no longer needed. Had finally agreed to sleep, after Terror had made noises about just how exhausted he looked for long enough.

It was good the General had agreed by then. Terror had been pushing for long enough that Cody was sure they were about to just hypo him and put him on a cot in medical, make him stay until they were satisfied with how much rest he’d gotten.

It’s quiet and the ship is on it’s night cycle and the lights are on in the General’s office.

It feels wrong, for the light to be on when it feels like everyone is asleep and the air is full of the strange lethargy that comes from the strange times of the night.

Cody knows that there is a night shift right now, he organized and assigned it, he knows he is not the only one awake.

But it feels like it, in the empty hallway with only him. It feels like time is frozen, a hum in the air from the engine and a hazy feeling threaded into everything.

It’s quiet, and it feels as if a single sound will shatter it, thrust them all out of this strange ethereal state and back into time’s hands.

The lights are on in the General’s office, and it's silent in the hallway.

Cody steps through the doorway.

“Sir?” He asks, and it rings, echos in the quiet, sounds so much louder than the undertone that it is.

There’s no response, just the quiet sound of murmuring, a shift of flimsiwork.

Cody frowns, walks to where the General’s desk is to question him further and—

Stops, because the General is asleep, sitting in his chair and leaning over his desk, head resting on top of scattered datapads and flimsi. His head pillowed in his arms, muffling his murmurs.

Cody hesitates, takes another careful step forward. It’s not the same kind of quiet in here as it was in the hall, not the same strange otherworldly delicacy. But there’s something more urgent in the need to keep the silence now. Something about seeing the General like this that leaves Cody hyper aware of how much sound he makes, keeps him alert for any loud noises.

The General doesn’t sleep much, but the lights are on in his office and he’s asleep at his desk and time feels like it’s standing still for this single second.

The General is asleep, and he doesn’t look peaceful, misses the mark just the slightest. Too much of the tension that’s been growing the longer the war goes on lingers in his jaw, his shoulders, for that. But there’s less of it visible when he sleeps, and it’s the closest thing approaching peace Cody has seen him _truly_ be in a while, and that’s _enough_ for now.

Cody has never noticed before, but the General looks younger when he’s like this. Less in control. Less carefully calm and collected, and more like the whole of the galaxy has been resting on his shoulders and he’s drowning from it.

Cody looks at the General, and it feels wrong to be here, to disturb this moment of quiet vulnerability, of exhaustion.

Obi-Wan breathes out softly, and from here Cody can hear the murmurs clearer.

“How strange, to hear the song of life,” Obi-Wan almost sighs out. Settles, eyes closed and breathing steady, “and find the only way to describe it,” his voice trails off and Cody can barely catch the final words, “is to laugh.”

There is something painful in his chest, too soft and too wanting and he feels like this is something treasonous.

He breathes, even, focusing on anything except the feeling building in his chest.

He hears, almost despite himself, as the murmurs begin again, quiet enough at first to swallow the first few words.

“...nebula somewhere that birthed a star,” there’s a strand of hair, falling featherlight against Obi-Wan’s cheek, and Cody has to stop himself from reaching out, brushing it behind his ear.

Obi-Wan sleeps on, words slipping out of his mouth in an undertone with ease. Cody never would have guessed Obi-Wan talked in his sleep, it didn’t fit before.

Obi-Wan shifts and, just barely loud enough, the words come again, “and let you find your way to me.”

There is a single couch in this office. Where the old GAR provided couch, that someone has long traded out for something more comfortable, used to sit. It is soft and good for sleeping and Cody is convinced one of the men had put it in here on purpose to get the General to sleep more.

He hesitates, doesn’t want to disturb Obi-Wan now that he’s finally sleeping but—

Well, it can’t be comfortable, laying down like that. If he lets the General stay like that, he’ll get a crick in his neck.

The murmurs are quieter now, too quiet for Cody to catch and it’s a little bit like relief in a ridiculous sort of way. Cody has never heard the General talk in his sleep before. And he doesn’t know what Obi-Wan’s saying, but it sounds gentle, and soft and meant for someone who is everything Cody is not.

He breathes, controlled and steady. Tries to shield his mind like they were taught, to give off only a sense of steady calm.

Obi-Wan sighs, relaxes just a little bit more, “Not bold, not brash, not possessing.” he exhales, hushed.

Cody breathes in again once, breathes out and then walks forward until he’s standing beside Obi-Wan’s chair.

He’s careful, as he moves, doesn’t want to risk waking the Jedi up.

He forgets, sometimes, that the General is shorter than the clones are. Usually, he seems larger than life.

Cody tries to be as gentle as he can, moves the General up off the desk, gets an arm under his legs and behind his back and lifts him.

It’s easier than it should be, Cody makes a note to tell Terror.

Obi-Wan shifts in his arms and Cody holds his breath. Obi-Wan sighs, presses his head against Cody’s upper arm and settles.

He mumbles something Cody doesn’t understand before his voice grows a little, “holding in your hands”, the line sounds like it should be longer, but Obi-Wan is quiet again.

Cody doesn’t breathe again until he’s set the General down on the couch. He’s careful, as gentle as he can be when he was not made for gentleness.

Obi-Wan huffs, turns to press his face against the back of the couch and relaxes, tension slowly draining out of him as he settles.

Cody searches, silently, for a blanket or robe to cover the General with. Listens as occasionally Obi-Wan’s murmurs pitch high enough for him to catch.

He finds one, tucked away almost guiltily and he unfolds it, drapes it over the General. Can’t quite keep himself from tucking that piece of flyaway hair behind Obi-Wan’s ear.

He flicks the lights off as he leaves, and in the hall, it feels as if no time has passed.

He thinks of the soft, sleepy way Obi-Wan had spoken and the feeling in his chest is close to bursting. Aching, but not hurting. It’s painfully soft, a gentle ache that makes him want to hold someone or be held.

It’s cold on the ship, in the hallway, but he feels warm in a way that doesn’t have to do with the thermal regulators in his blacks, something settling in his chest.

He sleeps that night, and feels both settled and desperately craving something he can’t quite name.

**Author's Note:**

> Obi-Wan says lines from two different poems in this, the first one is titled [gardens](https://rose-blooms-red.tumblr.com/post/632609280559906816/the-old-writings-tell-us-the-force-is-everything) and the second is titled [an understanding of the gentle love](https://rose-blooms-red.tumblr.com/post/632609618752831488/theres-a-nebula-somewhere-that-birthed-a-star)
> 
> I am!! unreasonably soft over this thing okay!!
> 
> If you want to find me other places I have a [writing tumblr](https://rose-blooms-red.tumblr.com) and a [fandom tumblr](https://themessofthecentury.tumblr.com)
> 
> Please come yell at me about Star Wars and DC!


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